RETIRED NORTHEAST SECTION International Vice President Michael S. Murphy passed away Nov. 27. He was 71. He retired Sept. 1, 2004 after 36 years as a Boilermaker member. Murphy was the father of former IVP-NE Sean Murphy.

Retired Local 1 member served 25 years as BM-ST

JOHN J. SKERMONT, A retired 45-year member of Local 1 (Chicago) who served 25 years as the lodge’s BM-ST, passed away September 13 at the age of 69. He is survived by his wife Susan (nee Christy); three daughters, Patricia (Daniel) Pohrte, Amy (Gabriel) Cuevas, and Jaclyn (Kristopher) Lunquist; grandchildren John, Lola, Mckinley, Max, Juno and Margot; and sisters Kathleen (Robert) Mrugala and Peggy ( Jack) Crotty.

Sept. 2, 1952 - Jan. 1, 2014

GARY PROCHNOW, 61, the retired Director of Industrial Sector Services & Organizing and Special Assistant to the International President, passed away Jan. 1, 2014. A resident of Surprise, Ariz., he is survived by his wife, Kathleen (Kay) Prochnow, eight children, two grandchildren, and two brothers.

An Army veteran, Gary earned a B.S. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin and was employed for 17 years with the National Labor Relations Board. He joined the Boilermakers in 1994 as an organizer.

HIS GOLDEN GLOVES fists helped him fight for his union — and feed his family.

Michael “Woody” Wood grew up in Humboldt Park, the oldest of four children of Russian and Polish Jews. His father worked for a clothing workers’ union.

Young Woody’s neighborhood was “a hothouse for gangsters,” according to a 1939 Chicago Daily News story. It produced outsized personalities and talents like movie-maker Mike Todd and authors Nelson Algren and Saul Bellow. Kids there learned to keep their wits sharp and their dukes up.

Served as IVP for 14 years

CHARLES F. (CHICK) Moran, who served the Brotherhood as an International vice president and International secretary-treasurer during a 26-year span, passed away December 7 at his home in Menlo Park, Calif. He was 94.

DONNIE RAY LACEFIELD, 71, a retired International Vice President for the Western States Section, passed away Sept. 26, 2011, in Flagstaff, Ariz. He is survived by his wife, Betty.

Lacefield began his Boilermaker career in 1963 as an apprentice in Denver Local 101. In 1967, he became the first apprentice to graduate from the Missouri Valley agreement’s apprentice program. He was appointed assistant business manager and dispatcher for the lodge in 1970 and was elected business manager/secretary-treasurer two years later.

Tom Kemme

Retired IVP-at-Large Thomas B. Kemme died Jan. 14. He was 71. Kemme was president of the Stove, Furnace, & Allied Appliance Workers International Union at the time it merged with the Boilermakers in 1994.